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November 06, 2009

The SwimFin burst onto the scene a couple of years back and has proven itself to be a massive hit with kids and swim teachers alike.

The SwimFin story started almost twenty years ago. In the late 1980s Kevin Moseley was a self employed swimming instructor. Just for fun, he took a couple of old foam swimming floats and made a fin that could be tied on to his back. At the end of lessons with a group of kids he would put on the fin for a few minutes of play-time to reward the children for their efforts during the session. The kids always enjoyed this time: Kevin would chase the kids around the shallow end of the pool, giving some practical use for the swimming skills the kids had been working on namely, not getting caught by the 'shark' in the water.

That first prototype SwimFin was the only one of its kind for many years. By chance, Kevin heard that the BBC television show 'Dragon's Den' was looking for participants and so, just out of curiosity, he applied. Kevin, and his new product idea, sailed through the application process, and before he knew it, he was invited to the London studios of the BBC and found himself telling these potential investors, the 'Dragons' about SwimFin. In a few short weeks he had prepared a business plan and a 'defence' of his SwimFin idea strong enough to withstand any attack. It wasn't until Kevin had done this that he realised what a good thing he had. Certain Dragons agreed and offered to invest in SwimFin. This was briefly shown on television, however, as Kevin chose to reject their 50% equity request, the Dragons liked SwimFin so much that they wanted a big piece of the pie, Kevin said a polite 'no thank you' and looked elsewhere. After several meetings with other potential investors who all wanted a 50% stake, Kevin decided to self fund the project himself.

Since then its been an hectic time for Kev Moseley and SwimFin. The product has been redesigned and improved. Before it could be mass produced, SwimFin had to be rigorously tested to ensure it conforms to world-wide safety standards. Patent protection around the world had to be secured, and the trademark registered.